Ramazan Keskin, a 60-year-old Kazakh man, has been cleaning the monumental tomb of late Prime Minister Menderes in İstanbul’s Topkapı district every morning for five years now. Keskin said he is grateful to Menderes because the late prime minister brought his family to Turkey in 1953 along with around 1,800 Kazakhs when they were experiencing hard times in their homeland.
“May he rest in peace. We owe much to him,” Keskin told Today’s Zaman with teary eyes. The old man has been working at Menderes’ monumental tomb since 2006 and is assigned to keep the tomb and its vicinity clean. “I could not serve him [Menderes] when he was alive. Now I am serving him at his tomb,” he said.
Keskin also said he does not start working without first praying for Menderes. “Before I start working, I go to Menderes’ tomb and greet him. Then I pray for him. People appreciate good men when they die. Turkey did not appreciate Menderes when he was alive. He was executed for nothing. We were very sorry when he was hanged, but we could not do anything other than pray for him.”
Asked about his memories about the day of the 1960 coup, Keskin said he was a young boy when the coup was staged. “I was attending a primary school then. I learned about the coup from a radio broadcast. But I did not know what a coup meant. As I grew older, my elder family members told me that Menderes was a very good man. He said we were saved from death thanks to Menderes. Had he not brought us to Turkey, we would probably not be alive today,” the old man added.
via zaman